cucumber

What is cucumber?

Cucumber is a tool for running automated tests written in plain language. It allows you to write tests that anyone can understand, regardless of their technical knowledge. Cucumber supports Behavior Driven Development (BDD) and is used to bridge the communication gap between stakeholders and developers.

What are cucumber's main functionalities?

Writing Features in Gherkin

Cucumber uses Gherkin syntax to define test scenarios in plain language. This makes it easy for non-technical stakeholders to understand and contribute to the test cases.

Feature: User login
  Scenario: Successful login
    Given the user is on the login page
    When the user enters valid credentials
    Then the user should be redirected to the dashboard

Step Definitions

Step definitions are the actual code implementations of the steps defined in Gherkin. They link the plain language steps to executable code.

const { Given, When, Then } = require('@cucumber/cucumber');

Given('the user is on the login page', function () {
  // code to navigate to login page
});

When('the user enters valid credentials', function () {
  // code to enter credentials
});

Then('the user should be redirected to the dashboard', function () {
  // code to check redirection
});

Hooks

Hooks allow you to run code before and after each scenario. This is useful for setting up and tearing down test environments.

const { Before, After } = require('@cucumber/cucumber');

Before(function () {
  // code to run before each scenario
});

After(function () {
  // code to run after each scenario
});

Data Tables

Data tables allow you to run the same scenario with multiple sets of data. This is useful for testing different input combinations.

Feature: User login
  Scenario Outline: Successful login with multiple users
    Given the user is on the login page
    When the user enters <username> and <password>
    Then the user should be redirected to the dashboard

    Examples:
      | username | password |
      | user1    | pass1    |
      | user2    | pass2    |

Other packages similar to cucumber

jest-cucumber

jest-cucumber is a library that allows you to use Cucumber's Gherkin syntax with Jest. It provides a way to write BDD-style tests using Jest as the test runner. Compared to Cucumber, jest-cucumber is more tightly integrated with Jest and may be easier to set up for projects already using Jest.

cypress-cucumber-preprocessor

cypress-cucumber-preprocessor is a plugin for Cypress that allows you to write your tests in Gherkin syntax. It combines the power of Cypress for end-to-end testing with the readability of Cucumber. This package is ideal for teams that prefer using Cypress for their testing needs but want to leverage BDD.

codeceptjs

CodeceptJS is an end-to-end testing framework that supports BDD-style tests. It allows you to write tests in plain language and supports multiple test runners and helpers. Compared to Cucumber, CodeceptJS offers more flexibility in terms of test runners and integrations.

README

Cucumber-js

This is the last version in the cucumber series. New releases will henceforth be made under the @cucumber/cucumber package name.

By installing this version you are implicitly installing the new @cucumber/cucumber package.

You should npm uninstall cucumber and then npm install --save-dev @cucumber/cucumber.

After doing this you should replace your require or import statements to load @cucumber/cucumber instead of cucumber.

If you are using TypeScript, npm uninstall @types/cucumber (v7 has types built-in). Also replace TableDefinition with DataTable if you are using these in your code.

Changelog

[7.0.0-rc.0] - 2020-09-14

Added

• Add --publish option to publish reports to reports.cucumber.io #1423, #1424
• Add support for Gherkin's Rule/Example syntax
• Add transpose method to data table interface
• Add log function to world, providing a shorthand to log plain text as attachment(s)
• Now includes TypeScript type definitions, deprecating the need for @types/cucumber in TypeScript projects

Changed

• The npm module has changed name from cucumber to @cucumber/cucumber - require/import statements must be changed from cucumber to @cucumber/cucumber
• TypeScript users must rename TableDefinition to DataTable
• Drop support for Node.js 8, add support for Node.js 14
• Events are now based on cucumber-messages
• event-protocol formatter has been removed and replaced with message
• Formatters
• Remove long-deprecated typeName from options object for defineParameterType in favour of name
• CUCUMBER_TOTAL_SLAVES is now CUCUMBER_TOTAL_WORKERS
• CUCUMBER_SLAVE_ID is now CUCUMBER_WORKER_ID
• Parallel runtime environment variables renamed for inclusivity:
• Custom formatters are now loaded via the regular require paths relative to the current directory, unless it begins with a dot (e.g. --format=./relpath/to/formatter). Previously this was always loaded as a file relative to the current directory.

Deprecated

• json formatter is deprecated and will be removed in next major release. Custom formatters should migrate to use the message formatter, or the standalone JSON formatter as a stopgap.

Fixed

• don't execute BeforeAll and AfterAll hooks when in dry-run
• support correct case for --retry-tag-filter CLI argument